2021 Races & Rides -- Go or No?

[grawp]

I had a great summer this year doing overnight bivy trips. You get so much riding in when you leave home midday Saturday, ride until 8pm, camp, then ride home again early next morning. 16hrs of Z2 yet only away from the family for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
A trip like this every third week or so plus a couple of more normal long rides in between and I stayed fit as a fiddle all summer long.
When the prospect of a couple of cx races came up in September, I switched to 3 short, fast cx rides a week for only 2 weeks, then raced. I was pretty well as good as I’d ever been and had so much enthusiasm to throw at the race. Was in second place on race 2 until I messed up twice in one lap. Fought back hard but ended up 4th. It was brilliant.

So this is how I’m approaching the rest of the winter. Lots of bike riding; 80km yesterday, inc loads of off road then 3hrs mtb trail riding today (Surrey hills for you UK readers). Lots of work, lots of fun

[Power13]

@tbright76

. If I get sick I will deal with it then. I would rather enjoy my life then sit at home and worry about something I can’t control.

And this is why cases are skyrocketing across the US.

See, the thing is you CAN control it…at least to some degree. Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands. Do those things and you can significantly help mitigate the spread of the virus.

If it only affected you, I’d have no problem with this cavalier attitude. Your choice, your consequences. But your choice has the real possibility to directly ( and indirectly) affect others. Sure, you may have mild or no symptoms, but the person you pass it to (or the ones they may pass it to) could have severe symptoms or even die.

Unbelievably selfish.

[truep]

No. What is so unbelievably selfish are the complete hypocrites like yourself that sit there with lots of money in your pocket, able to put your kids in college, while guys like me owning a business struggle to feed my five kids. Busting my ass every day, (in your mind) risking my LIFE because I have to be in contact with lots of people to do so in a big office building (and I’m no better than the guys and gals who risk THEIR LIFE to go make minimum wage at McDonalds or the grocery store to keep YOUR ASS FED), but the second I want to race my bike OUTDOORS with my friends, some a-hole cries FOUL.

Gad, i hâte the internet thought police. Feel like I’m in Saudi Arabia dealing with the moral police. Same answer for me. Go to hell.

[Captain_Doughnutman]

Oops! Fat fingered that ignore button again!

Looks like the ‘am I going to race or am I going to bike-pack?’ thread too a sharp exit.

[SRLECEY]

@truep

owning a business struggle to feed my five kids

Working is essential. Thank you for working hard to provide for your family, and giving your employees an opportunity to provide for theirs.

@truep

I want to race my bike OUTDOORS with my friends

That’s not essential, and could/should be avoided until we have the pandemic under control.

[Power13]

@truep

No. What is so unbelievably selfish are the complete hypocrites like yourself that sit there with lots of money in your pocket, able to put your kids in college, while guys like me owning a business struggle to feed my five kids. Busting my ass every day, (in your mind) risking my LIFE because I have to be in contact with lots of people to do so in a big office building (and I’m no better than the guys and gals who risk THEIR LIFE to go make minimum wage at McDonalds or the grocery store to keep YOUR ASS FED), but the second I want to race my bike OUTDOORS with my friends, some a-hole cries FOUL.

Gad, i hâte the internet thought police. Feel like I’m in Saudi Arabia dealing with the moral police. Same answer for me. Go to hell.

Wow. That is quite the screed. If this wasn’t so serious, it would actually be pretty funny.

[mwglow15]

One is to earn money to live and feed your family and the other is to play bikes. If you get sick and subsequently infect people from working then that’s unfortunate but if that happens from doing something that’s purely recreational then yeah that’s a bit selfish.

And this ridiculous argument of “oh my job puts me at high risk of infection so why shouldn’t I do this other less risky thing for fun” is just a terrible one. If anything, the fact that you are at a higher risk of being sick with COVID at any time from your job should make you want to limit how you expose others.

So yeah…putting yourself at risk for work isn’t selfish but doing the same to play bikes is selfish. I don’t think that’s a very difficult distinction.

[Power13]

Just dropping this off here for no particular reason…

Jim Acosta (Acosta)

[grwoolf]

@Power13

And this is why cases are skyrocketing across the US.

See, the thing is you CAN control it…at least to some degree. Wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands. Do those things and you can significantly help mitigate the spread of the virus.

If it only affected you, I’d have no problem with this cavalier attitude. Your choice, your consequences. But your choice has the real possibility to directly ( and indirectly) affect others. Sure, you may have mild or no symptoms, but the person you pass it to (or the ones they may pass it to) could have severe symptoms or even die.

Unbelievably selfish.

Cases are surging in many parts of the world, it’s not just a US thing. More time indoors and people are getting tired of the situation.

As stated above, covid isn’t going anywhere and we need to find a balance and that includes leisure activities and exercise. Those things are important to good health and a reasonable tradeoff with the increased risk of spreading covid for many folks. Calling that behavior selfish is technically accurate, but very misguided in my opinion. Living is selfish. Lots of things we do every day are killing the planet and putting others at risk around us. Driving a car or owning a nice bike are very selfish. Why don’t we have the government take those resources and help feed the world? Covid is certainly front and center these days and very polarizing, but society picks the balance, the government tries to enforce it, and most will not be happy with the balance that is struck. Some want to ignore covid, some think everyone should be locked in their houses. Neither of those options make any sense to me, but I understand that people feel that way. You can be upset about how the country is dealing with covid and you can try to affect change in a productive way, but shaming people who don’t agree with you is probably going to illicit a poor response.

I’ve been racing this year and plan to race next year. It’s just not an activity with a high risk of spread based on what I know about the virus. The travel aspect is probably the riskiest aspect when you are talking about big races, but no more risk than any type of travel/vacation activity.

[Power13]

Your post is full of logical fallacies, I’m afraid. There is no comparison between owning a nice bike and demonstrating reckless behavior re: transmitting a deadly virus. Same for driving a car.

In no way shape or form have I advocated locking yourself in your house and not going outside. In fact, I clearly illustrated ways you can more safely go about your life. Nor did I suggest not going out and exercising / training.

We absolutely have to find ways to open our society back up…but we need to do it safely. Saying “f*ck it, I’m tired of this schitt” ain’t it.

[grwoolf]

@Power13

Your post is full of logical fallacies, I’m afraid. There is no comparison between owning a nice bike and demonstrating reckless behavior re: transmitting a deadly virus. Same for driving a car.

You can argue the extent of these things, but I’ll stand by my logic. Driving a car puts yourself and those around you at risk. 10’s of thousands die car accidents each year and many more die or get sick because cars destroy the environment. It’s not on the news every night because society has made the current balance somewhat acceptable. The government could reduce deaths by eliminating all cars or mandating only electric cars to reduce pollution (which some would push for right now). Or, they could say we could only drive cars under 20 mph to reduce fatalities.

I think it’s a fair comparison and just highlights that covid is another risk that needs to be managed. and everyone has very different opinions on what the tradeoff should be.

Disneyworld is open right now. Is that responsible? As much as I love Mickey, I question whether that’s a good idea. That said, I also understand that over 50k people work at disneyworld and they need to feed themselves and their families. Kids (and adults) need to get out and have fun, even with all the bad stuff going on in the world.

[jdman]

Yep - there are a lot of watt monsters out there - Alex Dowsett…who is a World tour pro and won a stage in the Giro last month didn’t get a medal in the National 25! I’m just pleased if I get a ride in some of the races I enter!

[RecoveryRide]

I was due to ride the Tour of Flanders in late Spring. I think that’s most unlikely.

I’ll take a decision somewhere in February, but plan probably on making a return to TTing after almost 20 years away from it. I’ll probably get my arse handed to me, but so be it.

That aside, I’m not going to get into a ‘what activities are/are not acceptable/beneficial/selfish during Covid’ discussion. They never lead anywhere but arguments.

[Captain_Doughnutman]

Guessing the go-or-no flow will be:

Health authority
Government
Governing body (sport)
Organisers

Thing is, most organisers start shopping for sponsorship right around this time (or earlier), so even if events are allowed, current uncertainty about everything in 2021, ergo low/no sponsorship, might be the death knell for events

[Power13]

Again, your post relies on logical fallacies. Driving a car is a necessity in our societies. Going to a bike race is not. This is just factual. And we take steps, as a society, to mitigate the damaging effects of automobiles…better safety devices, seatbelt laws, emissions standards, speed limits, traffic laws, etc.

So let’s be consistent when comparing the two…using your logic, we should be taking steps to mitigate the negative impact of the virus so we can minimize the damaging aspects of it…wear a mask, social distance, avoid large crowds (including bike races), wash your hands, etc.

Glad we could reach a consensus. Have a great ride today.

[Captain_Doughnutman]

@Power13

And we take steps, as a society, to mitigate the damaging effects of automobiles…

Also to point out that the damaging effects of automobiles is not “accidental”, if it was, there would be no ‘cause of accident’.

The damage is caused by individuals disregarding the mitigating steps in favour of pampering their own ego, e.g. speeding, the largest contributing factor to auto “accidents” and subsequent deaths.

Likewise, the spread of COVID, and subsequent deaths, can also be traced back to individuals disregarding the mitigating steps in favour of pampering their own ego, e.g. political rallies, motorcycle rallies, don’t tread on me, etc.

Off to search for the bike packing thread!

[grwoolf]

@Power13

Again, your post relies on logical fallacies. Driving a car is a necessity in our societies. Going to a bike race is not. This is just factual.

We can agree to disagree. I’m not trying to say the magnitude of the automobile situation is the same as the pandemic, but I think the logical comparison holds. It’s no less sad or tragic to see someone die in a car accident or from lung disease than it is from covid. The automobile side would actually be much easier to mitigate, so why would we sit by and let it happen every year?

We can also disagree on the definition of “fact”. In the history of mankind, cars were just recently invented, so I’d question the notion that they are necessary. Many thousands of years of evidence would prove otherwise. I like my car, but our society could find a way to live without them and save a bunch of lives.

[Landis]

@grwoolf

You can argue the extent of these things, but I’ll stand by my logic. Driving a car puts yourself and those around you at risk. 10’s of thousands die car accidents each year and many more die or get sick because cars destroy the environment. It’s not on the news every night because society has made the current balance somewhat acceptable. The government could reduce deaths by eliminating all cars or mandating only electric cars to reduce pollution (which some would push for right now). Or, they could say we could only drive cars under 20 mph to reduce fatalities.

I get it. And I sort of agree, however, driving a car isn’t contagious like a virus. Just food for thought.

[AJS914]

The government could do a lot of things to mitigate risks: ban alcohol, ban cigarettes, ban guns, ban twinkies, the list goes on and on.

Whether to race or not, first depends on whether governments or sanctioning bodies approve the races and issue permits.

If an individual here thinks people shouldn’t participate in sanctioned/permitted races then it’s just their opinion.

[Captain_Doughnutman]